In Sabbath v. United States, 391 U.S. 585, 20 L. Ed. 2d 828, 88 S. Ct. 1755 (1968), the Court recognized that "there is little reason why those limited exceptions (to any possible constitutional rule relating to announcement and entry) might not also apply to § 3109, since they existed at common law, to which the statute is a codification." Id. at 591 n.8. Two exceptions to the "knock and announce" statute of which the Court was speaking are (1) situations where the persons within already know of the officers' authority and purpose, and (2) where those within, aware of the presence of someone outside, engage in activity which makes the officers reasonably believe they are trying to escape or destroy evidence. Both of these circumstances existed at Taylor Street. A reasonable interpretation of Jones' behavior when he looked out the door and headed upstairs was that he was well aware of the purpose of the agents' visit, was refusing them admittance, and was moving to destroy evidence. Like in United States v. James, 246 U.S. App. D.C. 252, 764 F.2d 885 (D.C. Cir. 1985), "to require the police (or the FBI) in these circumstances to announce that they are there to execute a search warrant would be to require a futile act. Compliance with section 3109 is unnecessary in such circumstances." Id. at 888 (citations omitted).

This case is factually similar to James. There, police officers broke down a door after they announced "Police, Narcotics" several times without obtaining any response and heard someone inside the house running down the back stairs. Id. at 887. At Taylor Street, the agents saw Jones go back through the house before they climbed in through the open window. (Although their means of entry was a "breaking" for purposes of § 3109, it is noteworthy that the agents chose the least intrusive means of quickly getting in and securing the property.) Like in James, it is not in the interest of justice to suppress the evidence seized during the execution of this valid search warrant.

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